Commuter Train Collision in Indonesia Kills 3, Injures 28

People stand at the site of a train collision between the local Bandung Raya train and the Turangga train in Cicalengka, Bandung, West Java province, Indonesia, January 5, 2024, in this photo taken by Antara Foto. Antara Foto/Raisan Al Farisi/via REUTERS
People stand at the site of a train collision between the local Bandung Raya train and the Turangga train in Cicalengka, Bandung, West Java province, Indonesia, January 5, 2024, in this photo taken by Antara Foto. Antara Foto/Raisan Al Farisi/via REUTERS
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Commuter Train Collision in Indonesia Kills 3, Injures 28

People stand at the site of a train collision between the local Bandung Raya train and the Turangga train in Cicalengka, Bandung, West Java province, Indonesia, January 5, 2024, in this photo taken by Antara Foto. Antara Foto/Raisan Al Farisi/via REUTERS
People stand at the site of a train collision between the local Bandung Raya train and the Turangga train in Cicalengka, Bandung, West Java province, Indonesia, January 5, 2024, in this photo taken by Antara Foto. Antara Foto/Raisan Al Farisi/via REUTERS

Rescuers were battling on Friday to extricate two people trapped between railway cars after commuter trains collided on Indonesia’s main island of Java, killing at least three and injuring 28, authorities said.

Video images from broadcasters MetroTV and Kompas TV showed passengers being helped out of train carriages, some of which had gone off the rails entirely.

Rescuers were weighing options to save the two people found squeezed between cars, said Herry Marantika, the head of a rescue agency, but declined to say if they were still alive.

Ambulances gathered to take the injured to hospital, police said, following the collision at 6:03 a.m. (1103 GMT) near the provincial capital of Bandung.

The three dead were train crew, said Ibrahim Tompo, a regional spokesperson of West Java police, adding that a total of 478 passengers were aboard the trains, with the 28 injured taken to hospital.

Transportation ministry spokesperson Adita Irawati apologized for the accident and for the disruption of railway services in the West Java region.

She said the cause of the accident was being investigated.

The government has spent billions of dollars on improving infrastructure, including roads, railways, airports and power plants, in the world’s largest archipelago nation, home to more than 270 million people.



Türkiye Insists on Two States for Ethnically Divided Cyprus as the UN Looks to Restart Peace Talks

UN Secretary General's Special Representative in Cyprus Colin Stewart, center, Cyprus' President Nikos Christodoulides, left, and the Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar talk as they attend the UN's end of year reception at Ledras Palace inside the UNbuffer zone in the divided capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)
UN Secretary General's Special Representative in Cyprus Colin Stewart, center, Cyprus' President Nikos Christodoulides, left, and the Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar talk as they attend the UN's end of year reception at Ledras Palace inside the UNbuffer zone in the divided capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)
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Türkiye Insists on Two States for Ethnically Divided Cyprus as the UN Looks to Restart Peace Talks

UN Secretary General's Special Representative in Cyprus Colin Stewart, center, Cyprus' President Nikos Christodoulides, left, and the Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar talk as they attend the UN's end of year reception at Ledras Palace inside the UNbuffer zone in the divided capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)
UN Secretary General's Special Representative in Cyprus Colin Stewart, center, Cyprus' President Nikos Christodoulides, left, and the Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar talk as they attend the UN's end of year reception at Ledras Palace inside the UNbuffer zone in the divided capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Türkiye on Wednesday again insisted on a two-state peace accord in ethnically divided Cyprus as the United Nations prepares to meet with all sides in early spring in hopes of restarting formal talks to resolve one of the world’s most intractable conflicts.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Cyprus “must continue on the path of a two-state solution” and that expending efforts on other arrangements ending Cyprus’ half-century divide would be “a waste of time.”
Fidan spoke to reporters after talks with Ersin Tatar, leader of the breakaway Turkish Cypriots whose declaration of independence in 1983 in Cyprus’ northern third is recognized only by Türkiye.
Cyprus’ ethnic division occurred in 1974 when Türkiye invaded in the wake of a coup, sponsored by the junta then ruling Greece, that aimed to unite the island in the eastern Mediterranean with the Greek state.
The most recent major push for a peace deal collapsed in 2017.
Since then, Türkiye has advocated for a two-state arrangement in which the numerically fewer Turkish Cypriots would never be the minority in any power-sharing arrangement.
But Greek Cypriots do not support a two-state deal that they see as formalizing the island’s partition and perpetuating what they see as a threat of a permanent Turkish military presence on the island.
Greek Cypriot officials have maintained that the 2017 talks collapsed primarily on Türkiye’s insistence on permanently keeping at least some of its estimated 35,000 troops currently in the island's breakaway north, and on enshrining military intervention rights in any new peace deal.
The UN the European Union and others have rejected a two-state deal for Cyprus, saying the only way forward is a federation agreement with Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot zones.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is preparing to host an informal meeting in Switzerland in March to hear what each side envisions for a peace deal. Last year, an envoy Guterres dispatched to Cyprus reportedly concluded that there's no common ground for a return to talks.
The island’s Greek Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides says he’s ready to resume formal talks immediately but has ruled out any discussion on a two-state arrangement.
Tatar, leader of the breakaway Turkish Cypriots, said the meeting will bring together the two sides in Cyprus, the foreign ministers of “guarantor powers” Greece and Türkiye and a senior British official to chart “the next steps” regarding Cyprus’ future.
A peace deal would not only remove a source of instability in the eastern Mediterranean, but could also expedite the development of natural gas deposits inside Cyprus' offshore economic zone that Türkiye disputes.